9-12
In this lesson, students will use two colors of beads to form two different percent mixes, and then form a final mix using scoops from the two mixes. From this tactile start, students will develop and use a formula to determine the final percent mix from two source mixtures.
6-8, 9-12
The consideration of cord length is very important in a bungee jump—too short, and the jumper doesn’t get much of a thrill; too long, and
ouch! In this lesson, students model a bungee jump using a Barbie
® doll and rubber bands. The distance to which the doll will fall is directly proportional to the number of rubber bands, so this context is used to examine linear functions.
6-8, 9-12
An Armstrong number is an
n-digit number that is equal to the sum of the
nth powers of its digits. In this lesson, students will explore Armstrong numbers, identify all Armstrong numbers less than 1000, and investigate a recursive sequence that uses a similar process. Throughout the lesson, students will use spreadsheets or other technology.
9-12
In this lesson, students will examine numeric, algebraic, and graphical representations of compositions of function in the context of successive discounts at a retail store.
9-12
Given growth charts for the heights of girls and boys, students will use slope to approximate rates of change in the height of boys and girls at different ages. Students will use these approximations to plot graphs of the rate of change of height vs. age for boys and girls.
9-12
Students will collect information about the National debt, plot the data by decade, and determine whether an exponential curve is a good fit for the data. Then student groups will determine and compare common traits and differences in changes in the National debt in three major eras: the Civil War, World War I, and World War II.
9-12
In this activity, students will use the Illuminations Line of Best Fit Interactive
to plot the data from two teams during the 2004‑05 NBA season. In
particular, students will look at the data for total points and minutes
played by each of the starters on the Los Angeles Lakers and Detroit
Pistons. The data suggest that Laker Kobe Bryant is an outlier—he
scores more points per minutes than his teammates, which is part of why
some sportswriters have described him as "selfish." But through further
investigation, students will also notice that Piston Ben Wallace is
also an outlier, because he scores fewer points than his teammates.
9-12
Students will use pasta to create models of triangles and non-triangles and investigate the relationship between the longest side of the triangle and the sum of the other two sides of the triangle. In addition, students will measure the sides and angles of a scalene triangle and investigate the relationship between the location of the largest angle and largest side in a triangle.
6-8, 9-12
When one end of a wooden board is placed on a bathroom scale and the
other end is suspended on a textbook, students can "walk the plank" and
record the weight measurement as their distance from the scale changes.
The results are unexpected— the relationship between the weight and
distance is linear, and all lines have the same
x‑intercept. This investigation leads to a real world occurrence of negative slope, examples of which are often hard to find.
9-12
Students discover the algorithm for solving linear programming problems and gain conceptual understanding by solving a real-world problem and using graphing calculator applications.
